Nicole graduated from UC Davis in 2015 with an AB degree in psychology. Before joining the Alba Lab in 2018, Nicole worked with Dr. Jeffrey Sall in the UCSF Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care and Dr. Simona Ghetti in the UC Davis Memory and Development Lab to investigate the relationship between anesthesia exposure and recognition memory in children. She is interested in studying the conditions that modulate the limitations of cognitive and perceptual processes. She now works with families from the Charles Armstrong school for our Dyslexia Phenotyping project.

Kristine Yaffe, MD, is a Professor of Psychiatry, Neurology and Epidemiology, the Roy and Marie Scola Endowed Chair and Vice Chair of Research in Psychiatry at UCSF. Dr. Yaffe is dually trained in neurology and psychiatry and completed postdoctoral training in epidemiology and geriatric psychiatry, all at UCSF. In addition to her positions at UCSF, Dr. Yaffe is the Chief of Neuropsychiatry and the Director of the Memory Disorders Clinic at the San Francisco Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center.

As a Monitoring and Evaluation Analyst for the Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI), Stacey Yamamoto uses program data to inform continuous improvement and, over time, demonstrate the impact of the organization.

Stacey has experience in public health research, evaluation and practice with a focus on health disparities among underserved populations. Her academic training and past experiences have ignited her passion for translational research with a focus on social impact.

At the Memory and Aging Center, Michelle works primarily on a longitudinal study on healthy aging. Lead by Dr. Joel Kramer, this study looks at the multiplicity of factors that influence cognitive aging in older adults, from lifestyle factors to relevant biomarkers.

Ali, a clinical research coordinator working for Dr. Winston Chiong in the UCSF Decision Lab, currently oversees the coordination of a number of studies which center around decision-making in the aging brain, with a particular focus on how brain structures involved in financial and medical decisions are influenced by aging and disease, and on the ethical and policy implications of these changes.